Guardian Angel III: Neo Arcus Angelus
by Xelskyr
Summary: Final Guardian Angel story. After three years, Ira's back, and he's out to take Matt down along with the whole Soul Society. But wait, what about Brandon? Gabriel has a dark secret? Matts about to find out more about himself than he ever imagined.
1. Chapter 1: Three Years, Still Awkward

Guardian Angel III:

Neo Arcus Angelus

Chapter 1

**Three Years, Still Awkward**

Okay guys, this is it, it's back. The last Guardian Angel story I'll ever write (probably). By the end, everything should be completely wrapped up and all questions answered. I was working on Fateful XIII: Rewind before this, but due to the fact that I have massive writers block concerning that story, I've put it on hiatus until I can figure out what the hell I want to do with it.

Putting that aside, for all those who read the first two, you know what you're getting, and be prepared for more. I plan on making this a longer, bigger, better story that it's previous installments, and I hope you'll all come along with me for the ride.

Get ready for a wild party, and let's rock!

* * *

Did you ever have a day where the sun was shining right in your eyes even though you had the curtains closed and you knew instantly this day was gonna be a handful? Well that was the sort of day that Matt was expecting, and as he got up and check his mail, his thoughts were confirmed.

It'd been three years since the fiasco with Astaroth, and Matt had settled in well in the Soul Society. He had his own place in the Seireitei, his relationship with Koshino couldn't be going better, he got a few days off to visit Holly every now and then, and he and Nathan got to hang out almost every day. He'd gotten pretty popular in the thirteenth and tenth divisions, and knew almost everyone of interest to some degree.

He was most beloved though, in his own position. See, Yamamoto got to decided just exactly where he ended up after they decided he was staying in the Soul Society. He figured Matt needed more discipline, so he stuck him in the most strict organization in the Soul Society; he stuck him in the Special Forces. They definitely weren't an easy crowd, and despite him having achieved bankai, he was placed at the bottom of the barrel. He was able to rise quickly in the ranks, having exemplary reports both on and off duty. After three years of busting his ass, he'd climbed the ladder of ranks.

His current job was alright, he was what you called a Field Commander. The basic definition of the job was leading a regiment of Special Forces soldiers on missions and such. Of course, due to the fact that almost nothing that would warrant the Special Forces deployment had happened, his job was limited to paperwork, paperwork, getting yelled at by his captain, and more paperwork.

Yes, his wonderfully cheerful captain; Soi-fon. To say the two of them didn't get along was about a big an understatement as saying that Grimmjow was just a _little_ insane. She was very distrusting of him at first, both because he had been a deputy soul reaper, and because he had disobeyed a very stern order from the captain-general himself. On top of that she was demanding, stiff, stubborn, short tempered, and a hell of a lot of fun to pick on. Matt was by no means the traditional subordinate officer who would follow the orders of his commanding officer. No, he much preferred to give her as much of a hard time as possible.

He would do his job, nothing got in the way of that. It was just that he did things that he knew annoyed her, like turning in his paperwork an hour late so it backed up her entire workload. He even went so far as to make up a nickname for her that he made a point to call her by whenever in front of the division. Sort of like what he did to Toshiro.

Speaking of Toshiro, ol' Frosty couldn't have been doing better either. After he'd gotten back to the Soul Society, they were able to replace his arm and he was in tip-top fighting condition again. Matt made a point to visit him at the barracks every once in a while and usually ended up publicly humiliating him in front of his division. It was something he'd become quite famous and popular for.

As for his other friends in the human world, he'd been keeping tabs as best he could. Ichigo he saw the most, seeing as he had the occasional business to tend to in the Soul Society, and he was up to date on all the happenings in his life. Apparently he had graduated college and was now helping his father run their family clinic while soul reaping on the side. Also, he heard from a particular blue haired former Espada that Ichigo and another raven haired soul reaper, one Rukia Kuchiki, had been spending a bit more time together as of late. It didn't surprise Matt in the slightest; he could always tell those two had a thing for each other. Ukitake had mentioned she had been requesting more missions in Karakura town, and now he finally knew why.

Acedia, the only immortal in Astaroths inner circle who Matt was one-hundred percent sure was still alive, was…well no one was sure where the guy was. He came back to the Soul Society for a few days, thanked everyone for being so kind to him and apologized to both he and Koshino for the whole "trying to kill them" thing, and then he just disappeared. He said he was going off to travel the world and see if he could do some good as a drifter.

He dropped Holly a line every few weeks; she was the closest thing he had to a friend, so he made a point to keep in touch. Matt wasn't worried though, Acedia could handle himself out there and he didn't really have any reason to go evil again.

Matt continued personally training Koshino for a year after he settled into the Soul Society, and she was currently on her way to achieving bankai, with his help of course. She was still beautiful as ever, but neither of them had really changed physically. Soul reapers didn't age very fast, and neither one of them would look more than fifteen or sixteen for…well he wasn't about to do the math, but it would take a while. It didn't matter to him though; she was still the most amazing girl he'd ever met.

A few years ago Holly would have held that position, but the fact that he was in love with Koshino sort of influenced his judgmental abilities a bit.

All in all, everyone was living peacefully and doing their best to make the most of the peace. He almost missed that little campaign against Astaroth those years ago though. Sure it was life threatening and dangerous on an apocalyptic scale, but he had every one of his friends in one concentrated group fighting together as a well oiled unit. He missed the kind of unity they all used to have.

Anyway, putting the nostalgia aside, he opened his front door to check for any mail that might have been dropped off. To his surprise, there was no mail at all, which he found odd, but it wasn't completely unheard of. He shrugged and turned to head back inside, when he felt a slight tickle on his left shoulder.

He looked over and saw a small Hell Butterfly, slightly fluttering its wings. Matt took it in his hand and opened his mind to the message. At first it seemed like nothing to worry about, but he was soon proven wrong, and his eyes shot open. He needed to tell Koshino about this; Nathan too, but Koshino first, mostly because she was closer and he could find her faster.

He slipped on his standard soul reaper robes with his Field Commander badge on the left sleeve. It was sort of like a Lieutenants badge, and he was close to the same rank, but the job was slightly different, and there were two other Field Commanders besides him.

Dressed and ready to go, he swung Gabriel over his shoulder and strapped it in. He instantly began using shunpo to get across the Seireitei quickly; the place was just so damn big. He was pretty fast though, and it wasn't long before he could see the Nagasawa estate. It was big and luxurious as ever, and the fact that Koshino had become quite well known herself what with helping with the fight against Astaroth and her victory over Luxuria, her family had only _gained_ fame. Not only that, but she'd also gotten herself a big fat promotion along with it; she was now the thirteenth divisions fifth seated officer.

As soon as he leaped over the wall and landed in the courtyard, he was attacked by a rushing black and brown blur, and before he knew it, he was on the ground. He was surprised at first, but then relaxed as he felt a familiar pair of lips press against his own. When Koshino finally _did_ move off, Matt could only laugh.

"Are you going to greet me like this every time I come over?"

"Until the day you stop being so handsome," she laughed back.

She quickly stood up and gave him a helping hand as he rose.

"Look Koshino, I'm glad to see you, but something big just came up. We need to get going as soon as possible. I just got a message this morning and we have a huge problem," he said urgently.

"What is it, what's wrong?" asked Koshino.

"There's a new arrival in the first Rukon district," he said, a look that was a mixture of worry and frustration.

Koshino raised a curious eyebrow.

"So; why would they issue you a message for something like that?"

"The new arrival…is Holly"

* * *

"Holly, seriously!?" asked Nathan.

Matt and Koshino had darted out of the estate after Matt explain how got the message that Holly was in the Soul Society. Nathan saw them rushing through the streets and got curious, so he followed them. The three of them were now making their way to the gates that led out of the Seireitei.

"Yeah, I just got the message. She dropped right into the first Rukon district and apparently Rukia was down there and got someone to call me up. She should be waiting there for us, so she should be fine until we get there."

Nathan smiled. "Well mate, it'll be good to see Holly again."

"Yeah, but while that's true, I can't help but wonder what happened."

"I know, it's too bad that she got here this soon; I can't help but be a little concerned as well." said Koshino

Matt nodded. "Yeah, there aren't a lot of things in the world that could kill Holly."

"What are you saying exactly?" asked Nathan.

"I'm saying either something so completely random happened that there was no way she could see it coming, or someone killed her, which is also extremely unlikely."

Nathan slowly nodded. "I see your point. If someone did kill her or something though, I can only imagine what you're going to do to them."

"I'll deal with that later, but you're right, if that's the case then I'm not going to let this go easily, not by a long shot. For now though, let's just get over there and see what's going on. Holly is here to stay now, so this is still sort of a happy occasion in my book."

As he finished his sentence, the gates of the Seireitei were in front of them and already open. Matt wasted no time in using shunpo and darting through the gates and into the Rukon. He jumped atop one of the wooden buildings and looked around for the familiar face of his friend. It didn't take him long to single out Holly's blond hair in the sea of brown and black hair, and found Rukia close by. With a sense of overwhelming excitement he made a few large leaps and finally came in for a landing right next to Rukia.

"Finally made it!" he exclaimed happily.

"It's about time mister Field Commander, keeping your poor best friend waiting," she teased.

"Hey, don't patronize me, I out-rank you now ya know," he joked back.

He shook his head and stepped forward, looking at Holly

"It's great to see you again," he said with a smile.

Holly came up and hugged him immediately, having not seen him for almost half a year. He'd been too busy to visit, much to her frustration. She had grown quite a lot since their battle against Astaroth; she was now taller than him, her hair was longer, and she was an all around normal looking nineteen year old.

"Matt, I missed you!"

"Yeah, yeah, it's good to see you Holly."

Soon enough he heard the familiar voices of Nathan and Koshino. He turned around to see his best friend and girlfriend jumping over the roofs to meet up with him. They leaped and landed in a similar fashion.

"Perfect timing you two," he said.

"Hey guys!" Holly waved.

Koshino exchanged a hug with the girl, and Nathan slapped a high-five. However, Matt's expression changed from happy to serious as the reunion finished; this was a question he'd been dreading, but was none the less curious about.

"Look; Holly," he said, "I hate to ask you this, but I want to know; how did you die?"

She shrugged. "I don't have the foggiest idea; I went to bed last night, and now I'm here, so I'm assuming whatever happened to me, it happened in my sleep."

He nodded, but for now he pushed it out of his head; he'd start investigating it first thing tomorrow, for now though, he was going to enjoy his time with his friends. He looked back at her with a smile.

"Well anyway, thanks, I'll take a few people and look into it first thing tomorrow. In the meantime, let's go back to my house. I can get you settled in and then we can catch up."

Matt and Nathan leaped into the air and began to shunpo back to the Seireitei; Koshino, Holly, and Rukia followed from the rear. With the speed of shunpo, the trip only took a matter of minutes to get all the way back to his house, which was a good ways into the Seireitei. It was decent sized, two stories, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, living room, kitchen, dining room, and a basement. They came to a stop in their shunpo party right in front of the front door.

"Come on in, there's plenty of room," he said in a cheery and inviting tone.

Everyone walked in past him, and lastly he stepped in and slide the door closed once more; he had a lot to talk about.

* * *

Matt was a glad to see his childhood best friend again, but even he was glad that the three hour conversation of what had happened over the six months they hadn't seen each other was over. Most of it wasn't actually even about catching up on events, it was just Holly and Koshino jabbering while he and Nathan sat in a corner, bored and annoyed as hell.

He was about to blow his top when his watch started beeping. Both he and Nathan knew what that meant…it was time. He silently thanked God; he'd been saved by the bell.

"I'm sorry if we have to cut this short, but its 3 o'clock, and Nathan and I have this little tradition we need to keep."

"It's time for our daily sparring match!" said Nathan happily.

Holly was pinching the bridge between her eyes and groaning. She knew all about their sparring matches, thought they could hardly be called that. They started out in a serious fight, but it usually just dissolved down to childish wrestling and biting.

They both hopped out of their seats with smiles as they headed out of the room.

"You're welcome to watch!" Matt called.

Holly, Koshino and Rukia headed out into the back, where Matt had his own sparring field. It was riddled with craters and cracks from constant use. Matt took up a position on one side of the field, and Nathan took the other, the other three of the group sat on the ground and watched.

"Alright, so you wanna use Shikai, or just keep the sealed?" asked Nathan.

Matt shrugged. "Let's keep it simple, sealed it is!"

They both chuckled and drew their blades. Matt's claymore shone in the sunlight like a crystal, refracting the light in all directions. Nathan drew his sealed katana and held it at the ready.

"So…any bets on the "winner" this time?" asked Holly.

"Twenty on Matt," said Koshino.

"I'll go with that," agreed Holly.

"Fine, twenty on Nathan then," said Rukia, "I highly doubt he'll actually win, but he's my Lieutenant so if I don't bet on him, he'll complain to me about it."

"I can hear you over there, and don't think I'll forget that!" shouted Nathan.

The raven haired soul reaper hung her head and groaned, much to the enjoyment of the other two girls.

They were caught by surprise when they heard a loud clank of two metal blades slamming into each other. They looked over to see Matt and Nathan's blades locked. Matt was, obviously, pushing Nathan back easily.

Nathan pushed back at Matt, and the two broke apart, and Nathan quickly used Shunpo to appear behind Matt. The raven haired soul reaper threw his blade over his shoulder and blocked the attack without even moving from his stance. He used his own shunpo, which was much faster, and re-appeared to Nathan's side, nailing him in the chest with his right foot using a roundhouse kick.

The redhead was blown to the edge of the ring before sliding to a stop. He rose up and charged Matt, and he mirrored the action. As Nathan sliced with his katana in a horizontal fashion, Matt jumped over the attack, and planted his foot on Nathan's face, then cart-wheeled back.

Nathan growled angrily while wiping away the blood from his nose.

"Come on Nathan, at least make me sweat a little."

"Matt, quit teasing Nathan!" scolded Koshino.

"Sorry," he groaned.

Again, he could hear Holly, Rukia, and Nathan all snickering.

"Man you're whipped," laughed Nathan.

He continued his laughing until Matt picked up a stray rock and nailed the redhead in the forehead with it. He scowled as he rubbed the point where the stone hit his head.

"Ah, you bastard!" he shouted.

Now it was Matt's turn to laugh while Nathan fumed at the antics of his younger best friend.

"Only a little over a minutes and it's already boiling down to a childish argument, I see nothing has changed at all," sighed Holly.

The other two nodded. "Every day of the week, twenty-four hours a day it's the same thing," said Rukia, "We come into work every morning and have to listen to him complain about something Matt did the day before."

"So any change in career for you two?" asked Holly.

"Nope," said Koshino, "Rukia and I are still in the same division. She's still the fourth seat, and I'm still the fifth seat."

"What about you Holly," asked Rukia, "How was your work going…you know, up until now?"

She shrugged. "Well, you know, annoyingly smug soul reapers who won't accept the help of a human whose obviously stronger than them, and even more annoyingly smug hollows who are weaker than the weak soul reapers; the usual. What about Matt, he's still a Field Commander right?" she asked.

"Matt is still part of the Special Forces, yes; of course, it's been very peaceful lately, so he hasn't had to do much fighting," explained Koshino.

"Yeah," piped in Rukia, "so basically it's been reduced to a desk job, which means mounds and mounds of paperwork."

A short silence fell over the air…well except for Matt and Nathan's bickering. Holly then leaned forward and gave Rukia a sly grin.

"So Miss Kuchiki, any _guys_ in your social life?"

She instantly stiffened and grew red in the face.

"N-nope, no one yet; I'm just picky like that I guess! Heh heh heh…you two aren't buying this at all are you?"

They both shook their heads.

"Don't worry Rukia, we've know for a while; Matt told us. Ukitake noticed it, and then told Matt, and Matt asked Ichigo. He's an even worse liar than you, so it didn't take him long to crack under the pressure."

Rukia scratched the back of her neck, embarrassed.

"Wow, even Matt was able to piece it together, I can't believe we were that obvious."

They all got a good laugh at Matt's expense, who was too busy arguing with Nathan to even hear his own name being mentioned.

Their girl talk was suddenly interrupted, when they suddenly snapped their heads over to the spar between Matt and Nathan. The word "spar" could be used lightly though, because spar usually involved punches and kicks, which this particular struggle had none of. The epic battle between Matt and Nathan was simply Nathan holding Matt in a headlock, and delivering a noogy.

Matt flipped his friend over violently and stepped on his…special area, then began laughing victoriously as Nathan yelped out like a pre-teen girl.

"Ha, I win again! FEAR ME, I HAVE BANKAI!" he shouted like he was king of the world.

The brunette girl quickly stood and grabbed Matt by his ear, yanking him off the older redhead. She sat him down in front of everyone and began scolding him like a small child.

Matt wore a humble and fearful face, while Koshino lectured him in frustration. Nathan snickered again until Rukia and Holly kicked him in the back of the head and shut him up. The two ignored his whimpers and whining, but instead looked on as their friend was being put in his place by his girlfriend, and both agreed that those two were as perfect for each other as they'd ever been.

* * *

Back in the human world, Seattle to be specific, a hooded figure in a brown cloak too atop a high skyscraper. The wind flapped against him and the fabric whipped back in ripples. He looked down at the streets of the city in thought. Right behind him stood a brown haired man in a white coat with a blue sash fastening a katana to his waist. Behind him were two others.

One was a dark skinned man in a sleeveless white coat with a similar sash and katana; he also had a visor over his eyes and long dreadlocks. The other was a tall, pale, white haired man with a similar white coat as the brown haired man, and, once again, with a similar sash, but with a sword reminiscent of a wakazashi. His eyes were barely slits on his face and he wore a wide grin.

"So what exactly was the point of killing that girl?" asked the white haired man.

"Because, it's better to have them all in one place right now; the less mobile they are here, the better. Holly wasn't much of a threat in terms of actual combat, but her precognitive abilities would have made her a good spy. Now that she's in the Soul Society, we won't have to worry about her." said the hooded figure,

"What of the boy you mention?" asked the dark skinned man, "If he was trained by Kurosaki, then he is obviously a threat of nearly the same caliber, if not the same level; he won't be an easy opponent."

"Not to worry Tosen," said the brown haired man, "You won't be the one fighting him, at least not to the death."

The hooded figure nodded. "Exactly Aizen; though I am wondering just how much stronger he's gotten over these three years. We'll have to find out. We should lure him here to the human world; it will be a much better and more private arena."

The hooded figure turned around to face the white haired man, "Gin, I have a little homework assignment for you."

His grin grew wider, "Of course Ira, what would you have me do?"

**

* * *

**

**Yeah...they're back. I know, Ira just _had_ to bring those three back, but look on the bright side, at least the Espada didn't came back with them. Now, note that I have another story in progress as well (Caught in the Middle), so updates might take a while, but be patient and I'll do my best to make them worth the wait.**

**Anywho, drop some reviews and tell me how I started out.**


	2. Chapter 2: Second Strike

Guardian Angel III:

Neo Arcus Angelus

Chapter 2

**Second Strike**

Oh, hi guys!

Yeah, I'm not dead, big shocker. I know it took me forever to get this chapter out, but I've had a lot of stress over school lately. Hell, I still do, but I figure I've been procrastinating long enough, so here I am. I hope this chapter is satisfactory and makes up for my long absence. My muse is a fickle little bastard and just pops in and out whenever it damn well feels like it, so I'm sorry this took so long.

Anyway, let's get this party started!

* * *

After a long day of catching up and settling in the previous day, it had concluded and everyone had gone home. Holly had taken one of the guest rooms in Matt's home until he could find a better place for her to live. He had had trouble sleeping the previous night, staying up to think over what had happened in just one day. It was morning now, and he and Holly were eating breakfast in the quiet of his kitchen. After his meal he was going to report everything to Soi-fon, and request an investigation team to check out the area around Holly's house.

He gulped down the last of his eggs, and placed his plate on his counter to be washed later. He turned back to Holly. "I'm heading to the second squads barracks to talk to Soi-fon, you can make yourself at home here or wander around the Soul Society if you want, just don't cause any trouble."

She gave him an amused look. "_You're_ telling _me_ not to make trouble? I think we have our roles a little reversed here."

"Heh, maybe. Still, I plan on checking your house out. It's doubtful, but I've got a few idea's as to who might be behind this."

"You think it's Ira don't you," she said, not asking but saying it with direct certainty.

Matt stopped in his tracks, but didn't turn around to answer. "We don't know what happened to him three years ago, he just dropped off the grid. Don't think I haven't considered him, but I can't think of any reason why he'd wait until now to make his move. If it is though..."

"I know you and he had a weird sort of alliance."

He nodded. "I could never really tell which team he was playing for, if he was ever playing for one at all. At times it seemed like he wanted to kill us all, but at the same time he hated Astaroth and the other Immortal Sins as much as we did. He was a total maverick, really confusing."

He sighed before continuing. "At any rate, I won't know until I take a look for myself. I'll probably be gone most of the day, so like I said, no trouble."

She gave him a mock salute and a smile. He figured that something might go down while he was gone, but didn't really have time to think about it, he needed to head out and get his mission cleared. He tied his Field Commander badge onto his arm like always, and threw Gabriel over his shoulder as he headed out the door. He wasted no time in using shunpo to cover ground as he headed for the Special Forces barracks.

A few minutes of rapid movement, and he was there. He jumped over the walls surrounding the barracks and landed in the main courtyard. As he headed for Soi-Fon's main office, he passed more than a few people under his command in his regiment, all of them greeting him with stuff like 'good morning' and 'great to see you'. He liked being able to be their boss, but be friendly about it. Especially since only a few years ago some of them outranked him.

He strolled down the wooden walkway waving to the few passer-byers that he met on his way. The thin paper and wood door was right in front of him before he knew it, and he tapped the wood of the door a few times to give fair warning before he barged in. As he expected, Soi-Fon was sitting behind her desk, working vigorously on her paperwork. To her left was Marechiyo Ōmaeda, definitely his least favorite Lieutenant. He was fat, a slob, extremely boastful, and in Matt's opinion, could barely fight. Most people believed that he only got his rank because of his family, and the more time he spent with the bumbling oaf, the more he believed it as well.

"Yo, Soybean, what's shakin'?" he said casually with a quick wave.

She sighed heavily but decided to skip their normal argument for today. "What do you want Anderson?"

"I don't know if you heard the news, but a buddy of mine, Holly, popped up in the Soul Society yesterday. If you could clear a little investigation for me, that would be great. Don't worry about losing anyone on staff, I'll go alone, it's sort of personal anyway."

Marechiyo scoffed, drawing Matt's attention.

"What makes you think the captain would clear an investigation into the death of one measly human soul?"

"Because three years ago when the Soul Society was sitting with its thumbs up its ass, that _measly human soul_ was part of the small number of people actually trying to _avert_ the impending apocalyptic invasion of Hells fiery hordes. Sorry if I find her sudden and unexplained death a little strange."

The burly man growled and clenched his fists. "Why you-!"

"Ōmaeda, Anderson, that's enough!" shouted Soi-Fon.

Both of them quieted, and the slim captain settled back into her seat. She eyed Matt intently. He was easily one of her most effective and well recieved Field Commanders. He would be the perfect soldier if it weren't for his mouth, which had the knack of getting him in trouble with both her and other higher ranking figures. Still, she was well informed of what had transpired three years ago. What had been dubbed as the Hellspawn Incident was only fully known to Captains, as well as the Lieutenants and seated officers that had been present at the battle. The battle itself was common knowledge, but what had happened inside the cavern, especially Matt's battle with Astaroth, was Captains information only.

The one he was referring to was Holly Nelson. As far as she knew, the girl had above average strength for a human, as well as precognitive abilities and was an accomplished martial artist. She was a fellow disciple of her former master and idol, Yoruichi Shihoin, which meant that the girl was not to be underestimated or undervalued. Even the captain herself had to admit, the girls death was indeed sudden and strange. She had seen Yoruichi one or two times, and the girl had come up in a conversation. Apparently, her old master had nothing but praise for her.

"I'll allow it," she concluded.

"Alright, that's a load Soybean. I'll head out right away and be back before you can say 'bankai'," he said as he headed out the door, "Be seein' ya!"

Once the door had closed, Marechiyo growled again and stomped his foot. "That simpleton, who does he think he is talking like that? That fool needs to learn his place!"

"I agree, he does have a problem with authority that needs to be corrected, but one can't deny his skill. Remember, he was trained by Ichigo Kurosaki and defeated Captain Hitsugaya in single combat."

"Hm, I still don't like him."

**

* * *

Half-hour later**

Matt exited the Senkaimon and breathed in the air of his home town. It had been a good long while since he'd been to Seattle last, a few months at least. He came out right on his houses lawn, and the lights of the living room shone brightly in the darkness of the night that encased the city. He couldn't help himself, and he walked up to the window looking into the living room. His parents were both sitting in the living room, his mother reading a thick leather bound book, and his father watching a football game.

He really did miss them, but everything was as it was four years ago when he first became a Soul Reaper. It was back to square one. His parents remembered that he had indeed died four years ago, and all the time he had spent with that during his time as a deputy was wiped away. I comforted him when he remembered that once they reached the Soul Society, he would have over a thousand years to spend with them, probably even more. That always made him smile, and it kept him going.

Satisfied that they were fine, he turned and left, heading over to Holly's house. With his speed, it was like a blink of an eye. The significantly larger and more expensive house was also illuminated in the darkness. Matt took the time to peer into their living room window as well. The atmosphere in the Nelson household was significantly gloomier, and for understandable reasons. Holly had only died yesterday, and though he'd just talked with her this morning like he used to while they walked to school, they wouldn't be able to speak with her for a long time. Their sadness was more than warranted.

He sighed, and moved to the adjacent side of the house, and leaped up into Holly's bedroom. He looked around; it looked liked like the police had already investigated her room. There was some caution tape and a few evidence markers spread around, but Matt knew that the police had no chance of catching whoever did this.

He jumped down from the window sill and onto her carpeted floor. He approached her bed and took a closer look. The sheets were still stained with dried blood, and there was a huge gash in the mattress indicating a bladed weapon was used. That only supported the theory that it was a spiritually aware culprit, but he couldn't think of who would do this, or why. Matt still couldn't shake his thoughts away from Ira. As much as he suspected the red haired Immortal, it just didn't seem likely. What reason would he possibly have for killing Holly, why would he go after her of all people?

He looked around the room for a few more minutes, but didn't find a thing. He was about to head out and snoop around the outside of the house when his spiritual sense suddenly spiked. He immediately jumped out the window, grabbed onto the edge of the roof of Holly's house, and flipped up onto the roof, grabbing a hold of Gabriel's hilt.

His neck twisted form side to side, and his eyes darted every which way. This spiritual pressure was extremely large, captain level large. It held a sly, almost fox-like quality to it, but some of it felt familiar. He wasn't sure why, but it seemed like he had encountered part of this spiritual pressure before.

"So, you're the Anderson kid he's always going on about," said a voice from behind Matt.

He whirled around and pulled Gabriel free from its hilt, slashing downward in a furious arc. The blade never made contact with the intended target, and the tip of the blade embedded itself in the shingles of the roof. Matt pulled his sword free, and looked over at the other end of the roof. A man with white hair, squinted eyes, -almost completely closed- and a sly grin on his face. He was wearing all white robes.

"Let's have some fun."

He quickly freed a wakazashi from a previously unseen sheath, and leaped towards Matt at blinding speed.

**

* * *

At the same time: Coaldale, Alberta **

Acedia was walking down lonely street just outside the town of Coaldale. It was the dead of night, and he really wished he had stayed in town and looked for a place to stay, but he was already a good way down the road, so he'd live with the choice. He hated walking, but he didn't have a car, and the next town wasn't too far away if he was reading his map right.

He was heading down to Seattle to visit Holly. He'd been all over the place the last three years. From wandering around East Europe, to trekking around South America. He'd been adventuring around the entire world, trying to make up for falling for Astaroths silver tongue so long ago now. He sort of missed Holly though; she was really the only family he had anymore. Well, the only person that gave a damn about him at least, and he hadn't actually seen her since he left three years ago.

She would be about nineteen years old now if his memory served him correctly. He still hadn't aged a day, being and Immortal, and still resembled a man in his early twenties.

He boredly walked down the dark road, his hands were shoved in the pockets of his jacket. He suddenly stopped and his eyes shot open; he sensed something familiar, and something he really wished he hadn't. He could hear a second set of footsteps coming from the darkness in front of him, and he stood firm to face it. Acedia was able to make out locks of red hair as the footsteps grew louder, and it only served to confirm who he already suspected.

"Good to see you again Acedia, hows life?" said a harsh voice.

Acedia sighed and freed his hands from his pockets. "Ira, haven't heard from you in a while. What brings you to this little corner of the world?"

"I think that should be pretty obvious."

"If you're looking for a fight, it'll have to wait," he said, brushing past him, "I've got somewhere a little more important to be."

Ira smirked and turned to face him as he walked away. "You know, I'll admit Holly's pretty strong, but even with those eyes of hers, she can't fight in her sleep."

Acedia stopped again and turned his head, the one eye Ira could make out was glaring daggers at him.

"_What did you do?_" he growled.

"I'm the avatar of Wrath, use your imagination," he said with a grin.

In a flicker of movement, Acedia was gone, and in an instant, Ira had a huge gash rushing down his right shoulder and upper arm. Acedia stood behind him with his singe tonfa blade drawn. He turned around and pointed it at Ira, who could already feel his right arm go numb and un-usable.

"Don't even try to run away you son-of-a-bitch, I'll take off that cocky head of yours before you move an inch," he said, an unusual tone of anger his voice.

Ira still retained his smirk. "If your feeling so confident, why don't you attack again."

Acedia took the advice, and flew forward with blinding speed, thrusting his tonfa blade forward to stab Ira straight through the head. The tip of the blade was mere inches from Ira forehead when Acedia felt a grip on his arm, and his attack was stopped in its tracks. The former avatar of Sloth's eyes widened at what he saw. Ira was holding his attack at bay, but with his _left_ hand.

"Wh-when did you-?"

"That's my little secret."

Then, with a swift flick of his wrist, he twisted Acedia's arm in a complete 360 degree circle, and with a simple yank, completely ripped it off by the shoulder. The pain was instant, sharp, and unbelievable in scale. The Immortal let out a scream that could very well have reached the town he had just left. Acedia fell to his knees and clutched his bleeding stub, tears uncontrollably falling from his eyes.

"How's it feel? That's how it felt when I lost mine. Now, let's see how much you enjoy losing your head."

Acedia looked up from his crumpled up form, and the last thing he remembered was the blinding flash of illuminated metal.

Then the blackness took him.

**

* * *

Chapter 2, complete!**

**I sorta feel like this was maybe rushed a bit, but I don't know. Drop a review and give me your opinion. That's what the buttons for after all. Oh, and why yes, I did just pretty much kill Acedia. **

**See ya next chapter y'all!**


	3. Chapter 3: The Angel and the Fox

Guardian Angel III:

Neo Arcus Angelus

Chapter 3

**The Angel and the Fox**

Heyo! I know, almost two months since my last update here, I suck. I don't really even have an excuse except that I had a major case of "Lost Muse", which basically means I had no motivation to work on this thing at all. Really this story isn't even getting many readers (I admit this is probably because I never update, but that's beside the point), so most of my attention has been focused on either Caught in the Middle, an original piece that I'm picking at in my free time, or school. Plus, I've been pre-writing the first few chapters of the next new fic I'll be putting out sooner or later.

I'm going to try working more on my fics, and going to see if I can pull off three at a time instead of my normal two, so my new one will probably be coming around pretty soon. A good deal of it is already started, so I can just post and forget, which leaves me more time to work on this and Caught in the Middle.

Anyway, you've waited long enough, so chapter 3!

* * *

Damn it all if that sword of his wasn't fast. Matt was currently engaged with the white haired man that had attacked him on the roof, and was impressed by his speed. He could tell that a lot of his spiritual pressure was being suppressed, and if his estimation was correct, he was easily captain level in strength. His sword was abnormally short, more along the lines of an elongated dagger. If his memory served him well, it was a wakazashi.

Matt flipped backwards out of the path of a horizontal slash, and he landed on the slanted shingles of Holly's house. He quickly brought up Gabriel and blocked another vertical swing, and brought his right leg up and shot it out aiming for his opponents head. He twisted to the side, deflecting Matts blade, and grabbed his leg, whipping around and tossing him across the roof and off the edge of the house.

The raven haired soul reaper landed on his back and lost grip of his sword. He rolled back and onto his feet, reaching for Gabriel. Before he could grasp the claymore though, his attacker leaped down from the house and forced Matt to pull his hand back and leap away.

After sliding to a stop on the damp grass, Matts eyes darted from Gabriel, to his opponent, and back again. He could use kido and some hand-to-hand in a pinch, but this guy was good; he wasn't sure how long that method would fly.

He'd have to put it to the test, his attacker was making a beeline straight for him. When he came in range, he immediately set to work trying to dice up Matt with his wakazashi. His movements were a blur of gleaming metal reflecting light from the moon. Mate ducked and dodged, slowly bust surely being pushed back and farther away from Gabriel.

He needed to stop fooling around and enter Shikai at least, but this guy wasn't giving him any openings, and he couldn't enter it without having Gabriel in his hand. He needed a divergence, something to at least get him off his back.

"Way of Destruction 31: Shot of Red Fire!" he shouted, extending his hand out. The red beam had the desired effect, and his opponent backed up, back flipping just in time to dodge the effect radius.

Matt shot forward like a man on fire, jumping straight over his white haired opponent, landing and rolling forward, and finally feeling his blade return to his grasp. He whipped around and deflected two heavy strikes before jumping to the second story of the house, and pushing off it, landing in the middle of the street where it wasn't so slippery and wet.

He silently cursed; he had told Soi Fon over and over again that putting the limiter on him was a bad idea, but no! Three years ago, it was also decided that part of Matt still keeping what was left of his soul reaper status was that he was to have a power limiter put on, just like all the captains and lieutenants had. His power was cut to twenty percent just like all bankai capable soul reapers excluding Ichigo, except with him, he also had his stability pendant to consider, which sapped about an extra two or three percent of his strength to keep his Spirit Buffers from overloading, so really, he was merely fighting at seventeen or eighteen percent full strength. At this level of power, it would take all he had at bankai just to keep up with this guy in Shikai.

Speaking of which, the white clad fighter jumped from Hollys lawn onto the street. Matt realized he'd wasted enough time and steadied Gabriel in his hands.

"**Bring Heavens Wrath**: **_Gabriel!_**" he shouted, and for the first time in a long time, he felt Shikai take over. The burning sword and his snow white soul reaper robes were a welcome sight.

"Oh, very nice! The flames are very intimidating, I'm a little frightened now," he mocked.

"No your not, not yet," growled Matt, then shunpo'd out of sight, only to re-appear right above him.

"But you will be in a second!"

He brought down Gabriel with all his might, and the flaming sword was met with the short wakazashi. Spiritual Pressure shot out in all direction, cracking the concrete below them and sending a gust of wind down the entire street. The stubby blade was still holding firm under Matt's onslaught, much to his frustration.

He shunpo'd away again and tried an attack from the rear, but the short sword wielder simply did an amazingly fast 180, and sent his blade wide, leaving him open. He watched practically in slow motion as the wakazashi reversed direction and sliced open his side, splattering blood onto the crumbled cement and sending him tumbling back holding his bleeding side.

"Better," said his opponent casually, "but still not very good. I'd say you've got the relative strength of a fifth seat at best."

Matt laughed as he regained his balance. "I'll take that as a compliment. My girlfriend's a fifth seat, and she's hella strong."

Even as he was finishing recovering, his opponent didn't waste any time taking advantage of his still unprepared state. He felt a foot connect with his chest, and he was sent tumbling back, taking turns slamming into the ground, only to hop back into the air again like a skipping stone until he finally built up enough friction to come to a stop. His left sleeve on his robes was in tatters from the scraping concrete, but other than having the wind knocked out of him, he was fine.

Out of no where, the white haired man shunpo'd over to him and stabbed downward. Matt rolled to the side, letting the wakazashi embed itself into the street. Matt took the opening and once he'd rolled back onto his feet, he made a thrust of his own. Once again it missed, as the man removed the blade and twirled to Matt's right, practically did a 360 spin, and in the process sliced open the right side of his forehead.

Matt desperately shunpo'd away, blood pouring down his face like a waterfall. He re-appeared on top of a house further down the street and pulled out his communicator; he couldn't take much more of this.

"_Commander Anderson, what do you need?_" came a voice from the other end of the line

"Too slow!" shouted a voice above Matt, and he instinctual dodge rolled out of the way, narrowly dodging a fatal blow.

"You can lower my fucking limiter for starters!" he shouted.

There was a silence over the line as he kept dodging and weaving the wakazashi, occasionally resorting to flinging Gabriel out at the last second to deflect the faster attacks.

"_Got it Commander, just wait a few moments while we get the necessary authorization._"

Matt's irritation continued to build in pressure. "What? No, fuck the authorization, get it down now!"

Matt ducked under a horizontal swipe. "_I'm sorry Commander, but regulations are regulations, not even the captains are exempt from them._ _We understand you're in danger; believe me, we're working as fast as we can manage, just hang in there._"

"I'm way past danger here, I'm getting my ass handed to me on a silver platter," he said, rolling to the left to dodge another slash, "Look, you've got two options here buddy! Either save me now and maybe get a nice fruit basket in return, or you can take your sweet time and let me die! Trust me, you'll regret option number two; I can get you sent to Hell, I've got those sorts of connections!"

As he was yelling into the speaker, he didn't notice the kick coming at him until his head whipped to the side and he was set flying back down into the street, face down. He groaned and pushed himself up into his hands and knees, spitting some blood out that was gathering around his gums. He wiped the rest off his mouth and push himself into a kneeling position with Gabriel.

_'Those idiot's better hurry; going into bankai would be embarrassing against a guy still in his sealed form, but it it comes to that...'_

"You're just an all around disappointment," said his opponent, who had jumped off the house and slowly drifted to the ground, "I was expecting a grand battle, but all I got was some kid too weak for his own reputation. Who did you suck up to to get that Commanders position, has Soi Fon gone so low that she'll be swayed by a sad look from a kid while I was gone?"

Matt coughed and held on tighter to Gabriel. "Ya, and who are you? What makes you such a big shot?"

A fox-like grin popped back onto his face. "My name's Gin Ichimaru, former captain of the third division and former general of Lord Aizens arrancar army."

The name finally clicked and Matt knew who he was now. "Right, I remember hearing about you; Ichigo mentioned you guys a while back while I was hangin' with him. Didn't he completely gut you or something?"

"Now, now, that's my little secret. You just be a good boy and die," said Gin as he spread his legs back and brought his wakazashi back as well, like he was bracing for something.

"heh,** Shoot to Kill**_**: ****Shinsō!**_"

Matt's eyes bulged as his wakazashi grew longer...a lot longer. It fired out and at him like a bladed bullet, barely giving him any time to react, and definitely none to dodge. He threw Gabriel up in reflex and the flying blade smashed into the edge of Gabriel's blade, practically shattering it in half on the spot. The crack that shot across the width of the blade stopped just short of the other end, leaving it relatively in one piece and holding the attack off, but Matt was already losing a lot of road length, and he doubted his sword would hold once he started smashing through buildings.

"NOT GOOD! NOT GOOD! NOT GOOD! NOT GOOD! NOT GOOD! NOT GOOD!" he shouted as he was flying down the road, his feet not even on the ground anymore.

He was more than halfway down the long street when his communicator finally responded again. "_Commander, Commander!_"

"I swear to God, if you don't have good news I'm surviving this just so I can kill you!"

"_We have the necessary authorization, you are free to activate your full power!_"

"Yes, you are so getting that fruit basket!"

With a roar, hit forced his feet down and dug into the concrete of the street and began summoning all his previously missing strength. He practically burst with his fiery orange reishi and he gradually came to a stop. With his power back and his sword repaired, he held off the Gin's blade with one hand and grabbed hold of it with his free left hand.

"Time for some oh so sweet payback!"

Another roar and he swung his arm left, dragging the sword and Gin along with him. He began spinning the quarter-mile blade in a full circle until he built up enough momentum and hurled the former captain into the air. A quick shunpo later and he was in the air, right in front of the tip of the blade again, and once against, grabbed it. He swung it over his head, flinging Gin downward and slamming him into the cement street, blowing away the entire section.

The fire on Gabriel flared into a blazing inferno as he brought it back while he fell downward back to earth. He fired a Sanctus Incendia down, and it exploded in a bright flash.

"That one was for cutting me!"

He fired a second, further intensifying the explosive force.

"That was for kicking me!"

Then he fired a final third Sanctus Incendia, practically engulfing the entire road in flames and reducing it to tar.

"And that was for saying I kiss up to Soybean!"

With his combo complete, he fell the rest of the way down to earth and landed in the flame ridden crater where Gin lay. His white robes were in shreds and it his chest was burned to the point where it hardly looked like skin anymore. He sent out a reishi pulse and put out all the flames; he didn't want to burn down his own neighborhood.

He knelt down after all the fire was gone to check Gin's pulse. He didn't even need to really, because his hand never got to his neck. Instead, Gin grabbed his wrist, twisted it, and put his now re-sealed wakazashi up to Matt's neck.

"Now that one was a doosy! He never mentioned you had a limiter; if I had known that I woulda' waited for ya to lower it. Still, that was impressive. Lucky for you, I'm not allowed to kill ya, so I guess I'll be headin' back now. Bye bye now!"

Then, just like that, he faded into dust and flew off into the wind like he'd never been there. It was oddly remeniscent of...could it really be? Why after three years though? Well, either way, he got what he came here for, so he supposed it was time to head back. He opened a Senkaimon and headed back to the Soul Society.

* * *

Soi Fon was sitting behind her desk, finishing her latest stack of paper when she heard a knock on the door. She called for them to enter without even looking up. The door slid open and she spared a short glance, but was able to catch enough to see a black haired soul reaper with a badge on his arm.

She looked up and saw Matt in horrible shape. He had a gash on his right side, his face was doused in blood from a deep cut on his forehead, and his right cheek was developing a nasty bruise -it was already a sickly yellowish-blue.

"Should I even ask?"

"I always attract the weirdos," he replied.

He walked in further and took a seat across from her on the other end of the desk; he looked exhausted.

"See, this is what happens when you put a limiter on me. I end up running into an crazy undead captain, and I get my ass kicked until, miraculously at the last moment, I'm saved in the nick of time by a big boost in energy. Can I please get this thing removed?"

"No, it's part of your deal, now what do you mean an 'undead captain'?"

Matt rested his right leg on his left knee and sat back. "Well, Gin Ichimaru is dead isn't he?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Yes he is, are you trying to tell me you encountered him in the world of the living, because if you are, then I can only assume this is another one of your immature attempts at humor."

He spread his arms and presented his entire body. "Have you seen my shit-beaten self? I damn near died fighting that lunatic! No thanks to the limiter if I may reiterate!"

"I'm inclined to believe that whoever was attacking you merely used his name to intimidate you."

"His zanpakuto's name is Shinso, he's got silver-gray hair, and his eyes are always squinted. Did I get that about right?"

Soi Fon nodded. "You did."

"Well, that's the guy who I fought, how do you explain the fact that he had the same zanpakuto unless he was Gin Ichimaru?"

She didn't answer, but looked at him with an expression that said she wasn't having any of it.

Matt sighed. "Alright look, at least let me ask you this. Would you say Gin was an bad guy, I mean a real bad guy?"

She stayed silent for a moment. "I would. Most would argue that he merely made the wrong choices, but those people hadn't fought the arrancars. They weren't there when he personally denounced everything he previously stood for and cut all ties to his past life in the Soul Society, so yes, I would say he was not only bad, he was evil."

"Evil enough to go to Hell?"

She nodded.

"Alright then, that's all I need to know. It's a stretch, but now I'm pretty sure I know just how he got here."

Before she got a chance to ask him what he meant, he was already out the door and walking down the path out of the barracks. She simply sighed, wondering what she would do with him, and went back to her paperwork.

* * *

Matt didn't have the energy left to shunpo back to his house like normal, so he kept to walking. He was utterly drained and didn't even bother carrying Gabriel over his shoulder, instead dragging it by the hilt and letting the tip scrape against the ground. He looked up and nearly cried in joy when he made it to his house. He pushed the front door open and stumbled in.

'_screw the bed, I'll crash on the couch.'_

He dropped Gabriel somewhere on the floor and sloppily plopped down on the couch. At least, he thought it was the couch, but the couch doesn't usually throw whoever tries to sit on it to the ground.

Matt fell to the floor and stumbled for the lamp on the entable next to his couch. The light flickered on and the room was bathed in artificial light. When he turned back to his couch, he looked up and saw someone he hadn't seen in three years.

"Hey Matt; not that I don't like you or anything, but I'd really prefer to sleep alone."

There, on his couch, sat Acedia in all his dirt covered glory.

Obviously Holly handn't listened to him when he said "stay out of trouble".

**

* * *

And there we are, the very VERY overdue chapter 3. Please forgive my procrastination filled ways! **

**So no, Acedia isn't dead in the technical sense the he went to Heaven or Hell, but his is dead in the fact that he had a scythe blade shoved through his face, but that's a totally different story...chapter...whatever. **

**Anyway, the few of you who actually read this thing, would you mind reviewing? Thanks.  
**


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